Motorist dies in burning car after driving near wire downed by nor'easter

A driver was found dead inside a burning vehicle Thursday morning on a barricaded Franklin Lakes road near a fallen power line, police said.

Police were dispatched at about 8:58 a.m. to a vehicle fire on Summit Avenue near the intersection of Route 208 where they found the Subaru and its dead occupant. The car was fully engulfed and a live power wire lay in the road.

The downed wire was reported around 5 a.m., Franklin Lakes police Capt. John Bakelaar said. He would not say if the motorist had driven around a detour and driven over the wire or if the wire landed on top of the vehicle.

"It's still an active investigation," he said.

Cones and signs had previously been set up in the roadway near the wire, Bakelaar said.

The driver has not yet been identified, police said. Investigators from the Bergen County Medical Examiner's Office and the Bergen County Sheriff's Department were on scene assisting with the case.